New community center to offer free legal clinics

For Port Jervis residents who want to teach a skill they know or learn a skill they don't — whether it's how to start a business or how to crochet — a new community center opening Sept. 14 at the corner of Fowler and Front streets may be the place to be.

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By Jessica Cohen

recordonline.com

By Jessica Cohen

Posted Sep. 6, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By Jessica Cohen
Posted Sep. 6, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

For Port Jervis residents who want to teach a skill they know or learn a skill they don't — whether it's how to start a business or how to crochet — a new community center opening Sept. 14 at the corner of Fowler and Front streets may be the place to be.

The Port Jervis group Citizens for Our Healthy Community was formed two years ago by local activists trying to keep Bon Secours Community Hospital's maternity ward open. They have long discussed their vision of a community center as a junction for information and skills exchange.

Valerie Maginsky, a founding member, was one of several members at the center on a recent Saturday, working to transform Hairway to Heaven at 11 Fowler St. into a locale for community gatherings.

"I walked around for six months, looking for something suitable," Maginsky said. "Many people in Port Jervis walk. I wanted the center to be downtown where people are. And this has a back office for legal clinics twice a month."

Civil rights attorney Michael Sussman, who is funding the center and who also started a community center in Ellenville, will offer free legal clinics where he or a colleague will provide legal advice to people on a first-come, first-served basis. Social service agencies that lack a Port Jervis office can also designate hours when they will provide staff.

"Port Jervis has families in distress that might be helped by Orange County foster care services," Maginsky said. "And Port Jervis has a deficit of foster parents. We'll have someone talk about how it works."

Other activities will be less somber. The center will host a family game night, playing cards and board games.

The center will be open for the first time from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sept. 14.

"People will have a chance to see the space and resources," Maginsky said. "We're inviting people to share their knowledge and passions. Everyone has a hot button — music, art, science."

For her, that button is entrepreneurship.

"People need to make money, and they can start businesses at home online. I'd like to see Port Jervis become an economic incubator."

She previously worked with Gateway to Entrepreneurial Tomorrows in Poughkeepsie as a consultant, after first being a student there.

"I'd like to work with the Small Business Administration, the Community Development Agency, the tourism commission, and other agencies already in existence," she said. "We have lots of ideas."

"Everyone's a teacher and a learner. We'll work with everyone's strengths," added Anne Horsham, another COHC member.

Working with them was Heather Bebe, a young mother whom Maginsky said "can teach how to change your oil and service your car, as well as knit and crochet."

So far, people have also offered to teach art, start a community chorus, inform about eating disorders and growing up in dysfunctional families, and more.

"I talked with Larry Gotham (a GED instructor) about having free GED classes for those who can't afford the fee elsewhere," said Maginsky.